Supplement – April 2021 Why a supplement? Not a month went by when, within a day or so of submitting my pieces to the David Parr House, I would stumble across additional information or a picture which would have been perfect. And, what to do with the interesting information that didn’t make my 2020 ‘Afterword’s? Moreover, new discoveries have come to light in the interim. Shakespeare and the theatre Southwark Cathedral, London, was William Shakespeare’s parish church when he lived close to the Globe Theatre and where the Bard’s birthday (26th April) is marked every year, making April the perfect month to consider Shakespeare’s impact on David Parr’s late-Victorian and early Edwardian world. In July’s ‘Afterword’, the influences behind David Parr House - Living room mural and David Parr’s choice of mottos in the trompe decorated ceiling prior to restoration. l’oeil scrolls he painted on his living room Note the trompe l’oeil scroll walls were debated. He included the ‘Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything’, quote from Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy ‘As You Like It’, begging the question: had David Parr seen a particularly memorable performance of the play, inspiring him to include a permanent memento? Shelley Lockwood, a founding member of the David Parr House team, emailed, ‘I can confirm that David Parr did enjoy trips to the theatre, as did Frederick Leach’. A scene from ‘As you like it’ Walter Howell Deverell In the 18th century, the rise in Shakespeare’s (1827 – 1854) reputation was reflected in the monuments created to him, notably, his memorial in Note: Walter Howell Deverell ‘discovered’ Elizabeth Siddall, who became Dante Gabriel Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, installed Rossetti’s wife. Deverell died while working on in 1740. A benefit performance of ‘Julius his picture depicting a scene from ‘As you like Caesar’ on 28 April 1738 at Drury Lane and it’ and Rossetti finished it so that his family ‘Hamlet’ on 10 April 1739 at Covent Garden wouldn’t lose out financially. contributed to its funding. © 2021 Nicola Gifford 1 English actor, playwright and manager at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, David Garrick (1717 – 1779) staged Shakespeare’s Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1769. By the 19th century, Shakespeare’s status as national poet had been consolidated, aided by Garrick’s efforts to raise his profile. Samuel Johnson: "…his [David Garrick’s] profession made him rich and he made his profession respectable." David Garrick playing Hamlet David Garrick - detail from an etching of the Image: (cropped) public domain Shakespeare Jubilee he organised - circa 1764 Source: Dramatic Characters, or Different Artist unknown Portraits of the English Stage, 1773 Source: National Portrait Gallery, London At the beginning of the 19th century, there were only 3 theatres in London: the ‘winter’ theatres of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and the ‘summer’ theatre of Haymarket. The Old Vic is an example of a theatre that was established outside the city’s boundaries so that new straight plays might be staged. (‘Straight plays’ rely on the spoken word to tell a story ie not musicals). In 1843, Parliament repealed the Licensing Act of 1737. It was replaced by the Theatres Act of 1843 which allowed straight plays to be produced in all licensed theatres. By 1851, 19 theatres were in operation, and, by 1899, there were 61 theatres across London, 38 of which were in the West End. Throughout the nineteenth century, many theatres were dominated by actor-managers who awarded themselves plum lead roles. Prime examples of managers who created productions in which they were the star performer are Henry Irving, who managed the Lyceum Theatre from 1871 – 1899, Charles Kean and Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Shakespeare’s plays were often staged because they afforded them greater dramatic roles and recognition, but texts were often cut to maximise their parts and productions were turned into spectacles at the expense of the play. In the nineteenth century, melodramas, light comedies, operas, Shakespeare and classic English drama, pantomimes, translations of French farces were popular, and, from the 1860s, saw the rise in popularity of French operettas and Victorian burlesque. In 1871, the producer John Hollingshead brought together the librettist W.S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan to create a Christmas entertainment. As Gilbert and Sullivan, their collaboration produced fourteen comic operas. And, in the 1890s, the comedies of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw offered sophisticated social comment whilst proving very popular. © 2021 Nicola Gifford 2 To illustrate the fashion for staging Shakespeare’s plays in late-Victorian London one should follow the Bard’s example and employ a ghost. English actor William Terriss (1847 - 1897), who was seven years older than David Parr, is said to haunt Covent Garden Underground Station and the Adelphi Theatre. William Terriss – circa 1880 A green plaque at the stage door Ellen Terry as Ophelia in Image: public domain of the Adelphi Theatre. Hamlet - circa 1878 Photographer: Spudgun67 Photographer: Window & Grove Image use: Wikimedia Commons Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London After unsuccessful starts in other careers, Terriss made his first stage appearance in 1868 and quickly established himself as one of Britain’s most popular actors and appeared at London’s principal theatres from the outset until his death. In 1878, Terriss acted opposite Ellen Terry at the Royal Court Theatre and, in the role of Romeo, he acted opposite another leading actress of the day, Adelaide Neilson, who played Juliet. Two years later, he joined Sir Henry Irving, the great Victorian actor-manager, at the Lyceum Theatre, performing a range of Shakespearean parts such as Cassio (in Othello), Mercutio (in Romeo and Juliet), and Henry VIII – Ellen Terry had already joined Irving in 1878, becoming Britain’s leading Shakespearean and comic actress for the next two decades. Terriss remained with the Lyceum until 1883 before joining the Adelphi Theatre, where he was given leading man roles. At the height of his career, he was stabbed to death by Richard Prince, an out-of-work actor and former colleague, at the stage door of the Adelphi. Cynics are quick to point out that Covent Garden Underground Station opened after Terriss died. However, actors assigned his partner’s, Jessie Millward’s, dressing room at the Adelphi Theatre have heard a ghostly knock on the door. Seemingly, Terriss would rap on the door to signal his arrival at the theatre. The creator of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and photographer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, (aka Lewis Carroll), described Ellen Terry in her early performances as ‘a beautiful little creature, who played with remarkable ease and spirit’. Left: Ellen Terry as Puck in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, in 1856. © 2021 Nicola Gifford 3 At his 2015 Oxford Union Address, Stephen Fry (far left) focussed on Oscar Wilde. In an aside, following, he highlights the conditions in which the works of Wilde and Shakespeare were able to thrive: ‘In fact, it’s an odd statistic that during the 19th century more theatres were built in London than had ever been built in the world up until that point and yet there are no theatrical pieces of any virtue or magnificence that were written during that period that last forever except ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’. There are no Victorian masterpieces except that one single play. Everything else is melodramas and comedies that make no sense to us.’ Image: Stephen Fry as ‘Malvolio’ (left) & Mark Rylance as ‘Olivia’ (right) in the Globe’s production of ‘Twelfth Night’, 2012/ Opus Arte Let us explore David Parr’s late Victorian and early Edwardian world some more but be prepared for controversy, a shocking historical event and a man who had become so deformed he had to be kept hidden from the public’s gaze. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) took up amateur dramatics in his spare time. In 1887, at the age of thirty-four, he became manager of the Comedy Theatre, in the West End of London. In the same year, he took up management of the once prestigious Haymarket Theatre with the aim of turning its fortunes around. With the profits he accumulated at the Haymarket, Tree was able to buy Her Majesty’s Theatre and his position as its manager. It became his home in every sense of the word. The interiors were changed to the grand Louis XV style and it re-opened in 1897. The theatre historian W. J. MacQueen-Pope, wrote: ‘Simply to go to His Majesty's was a thrill. As soon as you entered it, you sensed the atmosphere... In Tree's time it was graced by footmen in powdered wigs and liveries... Everything was in tone, nothing cheap, nothing vulgar.’ Under Tree Her (later His) Majesty's Theatre built an international reputation as the premier British playhouse for staging Shakespeare’s works. Tree mounted sixteen Shakespeare productions. He also established an annual Shakespeare festival from 1905 to 1913 which showcased over two hundred performances by other companies as well as his own. Shakespeare productions had lost money for other theatre companies, but Tree stuck to those which had wide appeal. In 1898, he staged ‘Julius Caesar’ which became a commercial success, ran for 165 consecutive performances and sold 242,000 tickets, quickly followed by two more hits: ‘King John’ and ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. Tree's longest-running revival, ‘Henry VIII’, ran for 254 consecutive performances from 1 September 1910 to 8 April 1911. In the BBC TV programme ‘Who do you think you are?’, actress Emilia Fox discovered her great-grandmother was the actress Hilda Hanbury, who joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree’s theatre company and starred with him in his 1894 production of ‘Hamlet’ at the Haymarket Theatre.